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America: 1776-2017?

January 20, 2017 — Gary McGath

The day has come. Will history record January 20, 2017 as the death of the United States as a free country? I don’t know. Trump has said that today mass deportations will occur under his command. I don’t see how he can cause any significant number of people to be “gone” today, but he could still issue orders to set it in motion. It will require mobilizing police and perhaps military forces on a huge scale and will directly impact all lives, not just immigrants’.

Democrats, for all their supposed outrage about Trump’s “racism,” have shown they’re far more concerned about keeping their government programs than building opposition to an oppressive state. I had really hoped that between the election and the inauguration, people would build a broad, genuinely liberal coalition against overreaching power. Instead, progressivism has dominated the opposition. It’s just another form of authoritarianism.

Last year, Trump said the election would be rigged, and Democrats said it would be horrible if he refused to concede it. Now, Democrats are saying his election wasn’t legitimate because the Russian government allegedly leaked the Democratic party’s secrets and promoted Trump. This is disturbing. If Democrats are going to regard the voters’ decision as legitimate only when they’re satisfied with the way the election is run, that hints at throwing out elections — something I’m sure Trump would love to do, as well, if he can get away with it.

I’m not the kind of person who can build movements. My part in the resistance will be keeping up the Techno-Liberty blog and calling attention to events. Trump hates press freedom more than anything else, and we’ll have to work at preventing and working around censorship and intimidation.

Eight years ago, Obama came to office on the slogan of “Hope” and then dashed people’s hopes. The last word spoken in Star Wars: Rogue One is “Hope” — spoken by the late Carrie Fisher. I’d like to find some, but there isn’t much left.